Slightly to the South of Nowhere

May 1, 2007

Being back in Rochester made for some sweet recovery from Tour of Georgia. Truth be told, I wasn’t nearly as worn out after GA as I usually am after a tough 7 day tour. That bodes well since stage racing is more fun than criterium after criterium… at least that’s my opinion. After a bit of R and R, Mayo and I partook in chocolate cake. This cake is from the local grocery store, Wegmans. Wegmans is much more of a grocery store, though, it’s more of a way of life. In fact, I just read that it won the Food Network’s award for “The Grocery Store That Changed The Way We Shop.” Now that’s some lofty praise! The cake itself is relatively tiny, but this bad boy is RICH. The small size allows you to eat it without feeling too guilty, although with more butter than flour, the majority of the weight is from the sweet, chocolate, butter-cream frosting. Yum.

During this R and R, in addition to eating cake, we made out way to the Rochester Public Market. I don’t know too much about it, but I think it’s quite well known among public market goers. It runs year round and is especially good in the summer with lots of good produce. I suppose all public markets can claim something along those lines, but this one is particularly large and attracts vendors from all over. I thought I heard once that it’s the oldest public market in the country. Maybe the biggest? I think it has some superlative along those lines. In any event, here’s a picture inside one of the long pavilions.

After the public market, Mayo and I tested our golf skills at the driving range. I’ve taken only one golfing lesson in my life, and I only remember one thing they told me, but that slight bend of the wrist has changed my game enormously. I’m BIG off the tee. 300 yards is no problem. Not bad for someone who’s lucky to hit the links once annually. Mayo’s got skills too, as demonstrated here.

Silver City, NM is the home of the Tour of the Gila bike race and is where the team is currently located. One might say that Silver City is in the middle of nowhere, but being in the middle would imply there’s something there in said nowhere. However, in this case that would be incorrect; allow me to state the truth: Silver City is welloutside of nowhere. From our host house, we have one road to ride and that takes us back into Silver City. Please don’t get me wrong, though, the town itself is really cool! The enitre area is really cool. Our host and house house are really cool too! My point from the beginning of this paragraph is that it is very desolate here. I can certainly understand the attraction to the area; the southwestern United States is an amazing location that so unique from anywhere else in the country. The art, the culture, the landscape… if you’ve never been to New Mexico it’s well worth the trip. Here’s a panoramic shot of our host house. Last night we sat by a fire on the back patio where there’s an amazing nighttime view of the rolling hills lit by a full moon. It was rad.

Lastly, here’s a shot of Rich and Omer taking advantage of the inside of the house. Mainly I took the picture because they’re wearing the same outfit, which I thought was rather adorable. Additionally, I thought they deserved the enormous publicity as found in being showcased in my blog.